Tag Archives: Braised cockles

Usually when I buy vongole I have them with spaghetti (garlic and parsley and white wine), but now and again I like to play around with different flavours and because I had some Chorizo in the fridge, the vongole ended up being more Spanish than Italian.

You can see the ingredients that went into this dish. Paprika is called pimenton in Spain. It has a smoky taste, but if you do not have it use common paprika instead.

Because the vongole release their salty juices when cooked, I generally do not add salt. A recipe very similar to this one but without the Chorizo is in my second book, Small Fishy Bites.

1k cockles
400-500g cooked Cannellini beans
3 Chorizo sausage (skins removed and sliced)
2-3 tsps smoked pimenton (mixture of sweet and
hot to taste)
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 glass white wine (or Manzanilla or Fino sherry)
4 spring onions sliced
1-2 cloves garlic chopped finely
2 tbsp of tomato paste or 1 can (400grams)
of peeled tomatoes
2-3 tbsp finely chopped parsley
2-3 springs of thymeLightly fry the sliced Chorizo in very little oil until it starts to brown. Remove it and set aside and use the same saucepan to proceed with the rest of the ingredients.
Add more oil to the pan and sauté the onions on low heat till they soften; add the garlic and pimenton, stir gently for 1 minute.
Add tomatoes, thyme and wine or sherry, cover and simmer until the sauce has thickened.
Add cockles and parsley.
Cover and cook until they have opened, shaking the saucepan occasionally to distribute the heat evenly.Serve with plenty of bread.

Cooking with Spanish flavours sent me looking at some of the photos from my last trip to Spain. Fond memories of good old Barcelona and a butcher in Madrid!